Aug 16, 2011

As the colder weather slowly approaches in the coming months, this dish will warm your kitchen and hopefully give you the same comfort it gives me.

My favorite way to eat this is served over rice with a slice of avocado. I make so many variations of this dish depending on what I have on hand; sometimes I add baby potatoes, yucca, or I'll make it without the beer. If you are really opposed to cooking with alcohol, perhaps a non-alcoholic beer or simply adding water would work instead.

For those of you who already make this, and perhaps have this printed out, I made some slight modifications to this and previously listed the servings for two pieces of chicken, but realistically one piece over rice with sauce fills me up perfectly. I based the points off of 1 drumstick, the rice is not calculated here, that would be extra.

Heat oil in a deep saute pan. Add scallions and garlic, sauté 2 minutes, add tomatoes and peppers. Season with salt, cumin, and sazón or annatto. Set aside.

Season chicken with salt and garlic powder; add to center of the pan allowing chicken to brown slightly on both sides. Combine chickenwith sofrito, and add beer, water and cilantro, adjust salt if needed. Cover pan and simmer on low until chicken is cooked through, about 20-30 minutes. Serve over rice.

Sazon is a type of seasoning found in Latin markets used on meats, fish, poultry and even to flavor soups and stews. It is also what gives rice the yellow color. One popular brand is by Goya Foods. Typical ingredients include, coriander, annato, cilantro, achiote, garlic, salt. I prefer to use Badia sazon because they don't use MSG.

Wow, I just stumbled across your site by accident and i LOVE it!!! Thank you for building your site and for sharing all of your recipes, I will definately be trying lots of them out. It is wonderful that you have the WW points listed. Thanks again:)

WOW! I made this for my husband last night and it filled the house with such a wonderful aroma of latin flavors! We both LOVED it! I can't believe how good it was. Love your recipes! I know I'll be making this dish again and again. Next time I think I may even try to do it with Chicken Breast for less calories. The sauce was AMAZING! Thank you.

holy deliciousness batman! im in love! the chicken was very tender, the caldo was so good it brought a tear to my eye. my two year old looked upset when whe finished her first bowl of rice with the juice spooned over it, she had 2 servings(well baby servings but still)! and as if being delicious wasnt enough, its was VERY cheap to make this and it tasted like a million bucks. im going to make the baked empandas on monday, cant wait!

OMG is all I can say!!!! This was so easy and delicious! My bf normally is not a fan of dark meat but that didnt stop him from asking for seconds!!! It was really inexpensive to make too, and I still have leftovers for lunch. I threw some baby red potatoes in last 15 minutes, they soaked up the sauce and were amazing!!

This was absolutely delicious. I served it with white rice and your peruvian white beans. I omitted the cilantro because my 3 year old daughter hates cilantro and instead used parsley.

As soon as my daughter woke up she asked if she could have chicken for breakfast. My poor husband is on Nutrisystem and looked like he was going to cry when he tasted the chicken and the beans. He asked me why am I torturing him? :-)

I made this tonight and it was delicious. I forgot to brown the chicken before I added the beer, so I just cut it into strips so it would cook through. I thought it was missing a little something, so I added two whole olives and let them cook with the sauce. Awesome! :D

This was a bit bland to me. I may have done something wrong. The next time I do this I may not add the water. It seemed there was too much liquid to me. Also, I will add potatoes to make the sauce thicker. Thanks for sharing Gina :-)

I made this on the weekend in my crockpot. It was amazing! I added potatoes, capers and olives. At the end I thickened the liquid with a tablespoon of flour. It was amazing!! Thanks for lightening up pollo guisado. I didn't think it was possible!

I have a chicken and hominy chili recipe that calls for beer. Normally I don't mind cooking with a little wine, but this particular recipe calls for a whole cup, and doesn't cook long enough or hot enough to boil off the alcohol. I substitute ginger ale instead. For cooking and mixing with other flavors, it has a comparable enough overall flavor, and it's got the fizz, just no yeast, which aids with thickening. It's an option, though.

Hi Gina! First of all thank you so much for your site, I found it a couple of months ago as I joined weight watchers and love it! I have already made several dishes and enjoyed every one of them. This recipe is high on my list I only have one question; what would you substitute cumin with? I'm allergic to cumin and often find myself not making certain recipes because it calls for cumin..Thank you!

As a short cut, you could use 1 jar (6 oz.) GOYA Sofrito sauce to save chopping and sauteing the veggies. You could still add the beer and any other additions you like to kick it up a notch. I'd still use the fresh tomatoes and cilantro too. Have you tried that sauce, Gina?

Just wanted to let everyone know you can get the Sazon packets at your grocery store as well! I'm in South Texas and I can always find it in my local HEB in the Latin Foods aisle :) Gina, all of your recipes are awesome, I've shared your site with at least 10 of my girlfriends and they all love it! Thank you!

Do you have an estimate of the approximate total weight of the chicken parts you used? I know that often, a recipe will call for some piece of a chicken, and the weight listed will be waaaay less than the weight of the same pieces I see in the store. I don't want to make this and find out that my serving size is twice what yours was, and therefore twice the points!

oh my, this is gorgeous - looking and sounding. looking fwd to trying. what is sazon? is there a place you typically find it? how do you get your garlic and scallions so small?? i think i need some chopping lessons...so glad to have found your site. i just started ww on monday. -heather

We prefer white meat. I would like to buy chicken breasts (I think you suggested with the bone in). Why not boneless? How many breasts would you suggest as they are much larger than legs & thighs. Would there be an adjusted cooking time using bone-in chicken breasts? I'd like to make this tonight & surprise my husband. Looks so good! Thank you.

Gina - Looks delicious as always, I'm off to the farmers marker right now for ingredients. I'm wondering if you can tell me what kind of chopper you use, as it seems to lead to good results and I'm guessing you use it a lot. I'm think I spend about 3/4 of my time in the kitchen slicing and dicing, but haven't ever found a tool that works for me.

I'm making this right now and it taste so yummy! I practically make all meals from your blog...your the best! I am using chicken breast since i'm on a diet...well lifestyle change lolThanks for sharing!

I'm dying to try this!!! But I'm having a hard time finding the sazon, or annatto Seed, or Safrito by Gayon. I'm in Anchorage, AK, so sometimes it is difficult to find speciality stuff. Thanks Gina for a great site. I'm a Life Time WW member, and trying to get back on track and cook good meals for my new husband!

Made this over the weekend and it was wonderful, my hubby just thought it was amazing. I cut back on the water and used 1/2 cup so it would be thicker and more flavorfull. I also chopped up a jalapino pepper and sauted with the garlic to add some spice. AWESOME!!!

Hi Anonymous, they should have Sazon in the Goya food section in any local grocery store. Annato and achoite might sometimes be hard to find as I am having a hard time finding it sometimes as well...and I live in San Diego.

This is so delicious!! I made this early yesterday before Irene hit so we'd have good comfort food for the hurricane! So, so good!! I am definitely making this again. My only problem was I only bought 4 thighs and we wanted more. Perfect comfort food for a scary night!!

Yum! I made this last night and the whole family loved it. I could not find the Sazon or annetto. I've never heard of those and I know this altered the original taste of the recipe but I added a can of Cilantro lime Rotel since I was unable to find the Sazon for flavor. I also added diced potatoes. Other then that I followed the recipe exactly. Delicious! Love your recipes Gina. I'm definitely a fan!

Made this, cilantro lime rice, and triple berry crisp for a few new friends my husband and I are getting to know. They loved it! About 3/4 of the way through the meal she said sheepishly, 'I'm supposed to be on a diet...oh well!' I announced triumphantly that all the dishes were WW friendly, and she was SO excited that she had been 'good' and it had felt like a splurge! Thanks for making me look good! -Mia

Hi Gina: made this tonight and the family went wild. My son commented, "This is better than a restaurant, and it even looks pretty!"

RE the Badia sazon: the stuff I found did contain MSG. The Badia "sazon tropical" didn't have MSG per se, but had equivalents like disodium guanylate. The only Badia spice blend I found w/o any of these enhancers was fajita seasoning... but found the annatto/achiote with no trouble, and tasted wonderful, so maybe the sazon isn't absolutely necessary.

whoops, one more thing: Peruvian aji amarillo (yellow chile) works great in this dish. The color complements the annatto, and the heat and fruitiness of the chile is perfect, better than jalapeno. If your local bodegas carry Peruvian aji amarillo molido, give it a try!

So you know how you make a recipe that has really good reviews and you think, "Eh, it wont be that good." Well this one was. It was absolutely delicious. It was my first skinnytaste recipe and I am now a believer. I made some brown minute rice with some baby spinach thown in for the last 5 mins of cooking. Yummy, healthy and low fat/low cal. Could not be happier!!

I make sofrito in large batches, a recipe I got from my Puerto Rican stepmom, it looks like pesto when I am done. And 3 major ingredients are cilantro, culantro and onion. So I am wondering where you got your recipe bc it sounds like no other sofrito recipe I have encountered. The women on the PR side of my family fight over sofrito recipes but they all use these 3 ingredients. However, I have no doubt this recipe will be delicious. I am going to make a double batch and make one with your sofrito and one with mine to see which my family likes better. I think the variation will be a nice change, but I do not see how it can be called sofrito especially without cilantro.I love your site you have made cooking exciting and enjoyable. I found you thru WW and my husband who is not dieting loves any recipe I get from you. Thank you for all your time and effort. I have no doubt you will change my eating habits for life.

I made the Sofrito this evening with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and it was yummy. My husband said "this is a keeper"! The only thing I did differently was to brown the chicken first, remove it from the pan and then do the veggies and add back the chicken. After about 10 minutes I added some fingerling potatoes and they were perfect with it. It was easy, smelled great and tasted even better. Thanks for all your great recipes. We have enjoyed every dish I have made from your site. You are much appreciated!

First of all, I've never commented, but been following and cooking for over a year! I've lost 52 lbs on WW, and now just use your blog and moderation. THANKS! I tell everyone I know about it! Now, I'm trying to make this gluten-free, and have GF beer, but it's not "light". Will that really change the flavor? I'm Cuban (another reason I love your site!)and I know the flavors pretty well, but I've never cooked with a heavier beer. If you know, great & thanks!

I made this recipe tonight for my boyfriend (who's Hispanic and ALWAYS compares my cooking to his mother's) and he licked the bowl clean! After the meal he said "I'm definitely gonna marry you!" Ha! Thank you for a wonderful dinner.

I added some additional goodies to this: 1 can whole kernal corn & 1 can black beans; wasn't in the mood to dice tomatoes so I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes I had in my cabinet; increased the Sazon from 1 to 2; & added 1 more teaspoon of Cumin; I mixed everything in the crockpot & browned the skinless chicken thighs and popped them in there too....awesome dinner over brown rice!

Hi! there.. u have such a cool collection of recipes.. I'm visiting your site for the first time and already became a fan..I've read so many comments about people complaining about not finding the Sazon, so I did some research and found out that u can order it from amazon and its not even expensive, only $2.99 for the pack of 20. try it out people.

This recipe is absolutely delicious!! Definitely serve over plain rice since there is a lot of juice and it soo good-you will want to soak it all up! Gold star in my book. Thanks again for another amazing dish!! :0)

Thanks for the recipes. It's great to find recipes that taste just as good or better than the full fat versions. I have been losing weight and a major part of that process is eating out less and cooking at home more. You make things so easy using ingredients you can find anywhere, you don't have to go to specialty stores to find them. I have made the sofrito twice and many of your other recipies. All yummy. Thanks again.

Gina - I'm so impressed with this recipe. Just made it for my family tonight and it was simply amazing. So delicious!. Thank you for sharing. I "do" Weight Watchers...as a lifestyle. And my favorite thing about it is that I can still cook wonderful meals for my little family and stay on point. Cooking is a passion of mine. So, thank you for all you do to bring us such great recipes. Happy New Year to you and yours! Lisa

Gina, FYI alcohol doesn't completely "cook out" of food, according to a study by the FDA. I thought I would let you know in case a pregnant woman or recovering alcoholic is tempted to use the beer in this recipe. Here is a short article from Dr. Weil describing the study's results:http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400900/Does-Alcohol-Really-Cook-Out-of-Food.html

I wanna thank you very much for your blog. I've been making recipes off your blog for the past month and a half now. I don't even feel like this is healthy food as it's SOOOO good. And my wife, who is SUPER picky about food loves everything I've made from here.

I just wanted to say how much we especially loved this dish. I paired it with some brown rice and it reminds me of the comfort Filipino food my mom used to make. I mean...obviously this is not Filipino food, but reminds me of it nonetheless :) In the picture, I thought I saw corn kernals in there, so I added about a cup of frozen corn just towards the end. It was a great addition.

Thank you again for the blog. I'm not on WW, but I'm happy to report that I've lost 20 lbs just eating better with virtually no exercise. If I add in some exercise, I'm gonna be unstoppable! Thanks!

Made this tonight after your rave reviews. As it cooked, I had doubts that is was as fabulous as everyone said. I was so wrong! This was a great meal! Gina--Your recipes never disappoint! Love your site!!!

This was delicious - I made it a little differently cause I was distracted while making dinner. I poured the sazon into the veggie mixture so I dirtied two pans (cooked chicken in a separate pan & then transferred it to the pan with veggies) - then I cooked everything for the 20-30 minutes (instead of pulling the veggies out. It tasted great & I can't wait to make it the real way next time to see which way I like best! Served this over brown rice with chicken thighs. Excited for leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

This sounded really good until I read the ingredients for the seasoning package and noticed that coriander is in it. The last recipe that had coriander in it, was awful. Is there not something else that we can use in place of it?

I live in the UK and have difficulty sourcing a couple of products used in some of these recipes, even though I love trying them out, anyway.

I did, however, end up making my own Sazon by using garlic powder, onion powder, dried coriander, smoked paprika and a dash of turmeric. I left out the salt completely because I used chicken stock in favour of beer, which often has enough sodium to flavour the whole dish.

This is a great recipe. I'm making it again, for probably the 100th time since discovering your site :-) It is a "throw it together" kind of dinner, and I normally have all ingredients on hand! I add black beans to mine, and have made it with chicken tenders or pork chops too...delicious no matter the alterations!

Thank you for all of your recipes...the "Latin" inspired are my favorites! I was born into the wrong culture :-) I'm thankful to live in an area that is very diverse, and I can suit my tastebuds daily!!!

Once again, the ST recipe ROCKED! I did this tonight for my husband and I with one bone-in breast and 2 legs. As usual, I cut this down for just the two of us, and it worked beautifully.

I didn't have Sazon, but I looked up how to make it from spices on another website. It might not have been perfect, but the flavor was incredible. I had no trouble with it being too soupy - in fact, I added a bit more water as it cooked (probably necessary b/c I cut the recipe down so there was less in the pan overall). I served it with Basmati rice. We both loved it. I want it for dinner again tomorrow!

Yummm!!! I made this for dinner last night. I sauted onions in addition to the rest of the sofrito ingredients. I also added a bit of dried basil, red potatoes, two pinches of turmeric, and some pinches of crushed red pepper.I ate it over long grain brown rice with a side of avocado. My husband and I were in heaven. Definitely a repeat recipe! Oh, and I replaced the beer with a cup of white grape juice. Still delicious.

This was VERY tasty. Made this last night using both legs and thighs - the kids ate it up over some brown rice. Gina, keep em coming! You rock.This is probably the 7-8 dish I've made, and not one has disappointed.

Hello,Been using your recipes for a while and LOVE them! Thinking of making this for to morrow evening party @ my house.....do you think if I marinate the chicken overniughht will b tastier or should I just make it fresh during theday.?

This is Pollo Guisado. If you don't have time to make sofrito you can always use the goya sofrito out the jar. But I make mines from scratch and save it in a glass jar. Also I boil the chicken and then add the water from the boil chicken back in. I also add potatoes. I agree, this does not take good with chicken breast. Too rubbery. I like it with chicken wings. The meat is falling off. Very good especially with the sauce over some rice.

Made this last night and it was a huge hit. It was very easy and very tasty with minimal effort. I used boneless skinless thighs, Fosters beer and a pint of grape tomatoes. The only changes I'll make is next time I may use a more citrusy or caramelly (?) beer and less liquid. But it was fantastic.

I just discovered your site and I like your recipes. This is my first recipe that I tried of yours. I actually combined your recipe with my Pollo Guisado recipe and used chicken tenderloins. It was delicious and the chicken was moist. Thank you for adding the Weight Watchers Value Points.

I made this a few weeks ago and my family loved it. I'm making it again tonight. The only change I had to make was the seasoning. I couldn't find it so had to use Mrs Dash southwest chipotle seasoning. I know the seasoning is completely different but the dish was still amazing. Thank you :)

This is my FAVORITE!! My kids BEG for it! My husband requests more.. so tasty and delicious! Thank you for all of your amazing recipes!! I make a meal plan every week and there are usually at least 3-4 skinnytaste recipes on it.. This week is this, the meatball spaghetti soup, mushroom stroganoff, mushroom tortellini soup, and the asparagus poached egg pasta.. I LOVE all of them! THANKS FROM MOMS EVERYWHERE!!!